The Australian Open has suffered one more ugly flag scandal with an obvious supporter of Novak Djokovic waving a controversial far-right image through the remaining.
Twitter consumer Sophie Mak spotlighted a fan holding up a Chetnik flag in a mass of Serbian supporters, proven on the TV broadcast, as Djokovic confronted Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday evening.
“Why am I seeing a Chetnik flag amongst the Serbian crowd on the Tsitsipas vs Djokovic match? Are extremely fascist symbols allowed within the Australian Open now?” she requested.
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The Chetniks have been paramilitary ultranationalists who dedicated warfare crimes throughout World Conflict II and are nonetheless broadly thought-about a far-right group.
In 2020, Djokovic controversially posed for a photograph holding a bottle that includes an image of Draža Mihailović, a frontrunner of the Serbian Chetnik motion, who after World Conflict II was convicted of warfare crimes after which executed.
Lengthy-time tennis author Ben Rothenberg referred to as for future Australian Opens to ban flags if safety can’t restrict incidents like these.
“Match safety has been fairly abysmal (although we haven’t had the ~annual court docket invader through the males’s remaining but),” he added.
Tennis Australia needed to implement a blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian flags early within the event after one of many former was waved throughout a Ukrainian’s match.
Djokovic’s father Srbjan was then caught up in an argument when he posed alongside pro-Vladimir Putin protesters who have been holding up a flag with the Russian chief’s face on it.That noticed Srbjan not attend the semi-final nor remaining of the event.
Initially printed as ‘Fairly abysmal’: Aus Open safety slammed as flag farce erupts
